An Introduction to the Literature of eSwatini

Kerry Vincent

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978755192
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book is the first comprehensive introduction to the literature of eSwatini. It details a literary trajectory that begins with renditions of the country by early travelers and settlers and follows with the emergence of a national literature that is marked by early oral influences and molded by unique sociopolitical interests. Along the way, the author considers how contemporary writing by visitors, expatriates, and journalists have salvaged and recycled earlier images and attitudes through a series of representational and rhetorical practices. In particular, the lingering influence of colonial discourse is explored in the context of the nation's pivotal incwala ritual. A chapter on Hilda Kuper that situates her fiction and drama between outsider and insider accounts is followed by the final two chapters that trace the development of anglophone and siSwati writing and identify themes arising from the major literary genres produced by local authors. The concluding section features a comprehensive registry of writers, with brief summaries of their works.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One. Allister Miller’s “Paper Conquest” of ESwatini
• Chapter Two. Authorizing the Exotic: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literary Versions of ESwatini
• Chapter Three. “When There Is No King There Is No Incwala”: Representation, Power, and Accounts of SiSwati Rituals
• Chapter Four. Hilda Kuper’s Factional Fictions
• Chapter Five. A Survey of ESwatini Anglophone Fiction
• Chapter Six. SiSwati Poetry, Drama, and Fiction
• Appendix
• SiSwati Literature Annotations
• Anglophone Literature Annotations
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Authors